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Wonders of the World

The Greatest Man-made Constructions from the Pyramids of Giza to the Golden Gate Bridge

By Hugh Thomson

Hardback

£30.00

From Stonehenge to the Empire State Building, and from Angkor Wat to the Pyramids, this book surveys every continent to discover the most impressive, exotic and intriguing man-made wonders of the world.

From Stonehenge to the Empire State Building, and from Angkor Wat to the Pyramids, this book surveys every continent to discover the most impressive, exotic and intriguing man-made wonders of the world.

Arranged in order of longitude, and illustrated with over 100 spectacular photographs, maps and illustrations, 50 Wonders of the World reveals the awesome architectural achievements that man has created over the centuries. This is also the story of the extraordinary peoples and civilizations that created these buildings and the key roles they played as centres of religion, culture or trade.

Hugh Thomson is an unusual combination of writer, film-maker and explorer. Hugh has led many expeditions to Peru, starting in 1982 when he was 21, and has now become one of Britain's foremost modern explorers of Inca settlements. His recent memoir Tequila Oil: Getting Lost in Mexico describes his early experiences travelling through that country and his interest in the Maya.

Other details

ISBN:
9781786489685

Publication date:
05 Oct 2017

Page count:
192

Imprint:
Quercus

Quercus

Countries of the World in Minutes

Jacob F. Field

Authors:

Jacob F. Field

The Countries of the World in Minutes is the quickest way to understand the modern world and every country in it.For each of the 195 officially recognised countries of the world, a mini-essay clearly and concisely explains its key history, characteristics and social and political structures. Alongside, an outline map shows each country's global location, main geographic features and capital city, whilst a table of essential data details its population, political system, languages, major religions, currency, gross domestic product, main industries, and much more.Illustrated with 195 up-to-date country maps.

The Everness Series

Ian McDonald

The Baltimore Boys

Joël Dicker

Darwin Comes to Town

Menno Schilthuizen

Authors:

Menno Schilthuizen

See your city through fresh eyesWe are marching towards a future in which three-quarters of humans live in cities, and a large portion of the planet's landmass is urbanized. With much of the rest covered by human-shaped farms, pasture, and plantations, where can nature still go? To the cities -- is Menno Schilthuizen's answer in this remarkable book. And with more and more wildlife carving out new niches among humans, evolution takes a surprising turn. Urban animals evolve to become more cheeky and resourceful, city pigeons develop detox-plumage, and weeds growing from cracks in the pavement get a new type of seeds. City blackbirds are even on their way of becoming an entirely new species, which we could name Turdus urbanicus.Thanks to evolutionary adaptation taking place at unprecedented speeds, plants and animals are coming up with new ways of living in the seemingly hostile environments of asphalt and steel that we humans have created. We are on the verge of a new chapter in the history of life, Schilthuizen says -- a chapter in which much old biodiversity is, sadly, disappearing, but also one in which a new and exciting set of life forms is being born.Menno Schilthuizen shows us that evolution in cities can happen far more rapidly, and strangely, than Darwin had dared dream.

The Invisible Cross

Andrew Davidson

Authors:

Andrew Davidson

The unseen letters of the only British officer to spend three years in the trenches throughout the First World WarColonel Graham Chaplin, commander of the Cameron Highlanders, wrote letters from the trenches almost daily to the wife he had married just before the war began. Even if he had no time to write, he would at least send a postcard to reassure her he was 'Quite well'. These personal and loving letters give a rare insight into the mind of a serving officer, his worries about his men and his family back home, his concern for the progress of the war (however cautiously phrased) and his comments on the growing list of friends dead or wounded.Having once refused what he considered unacceptably dangerous orders to send his troops over the top during the Battle of Loos, Chaplin wasn't promoted out of the trenches until 1917. Respected and trusted by his men, he was, even so, the only officer to whom this happened.Andrew Davidson, author of the highly praised Fred's War, analyses Chaplin's unique status and weaves around his letters a fascinating portrait of a soldier's life and of the war on the Western Front.

The Genius Test

Giles Sparrow

Authors:

Giles Sparrow

What is the Higgs Boson? Where did life come from? And what are you looking at when you're looking at Modern Art?Put your knowledge to the test - and learn to think and talk like a genius. The Genius Test takes you on a journey through humanity's most brain-bending ideas, from the big bang and the origins of life to chaos theory, existentialism and special relativity, challenging you to understand and providing the tools to help you master the big ideas. Shortcuts to becoming a genius include: · Are you a Genius? quizzes - questions to test your knowledge· The 10 things a Genius would know· Talk like a Genius - intellectual conversation gambits· A Bluffer's summary The Genius Test challenges you to understand 50 subjects including: The Hard Problem of consciousness; the human genome; Evo-devo; the human brain; A.I.; Fermat's Last Theorem; the Riemann Hypothesis; Gödel's Theorem of Incompleteness; Post-modernism; Modern architecture; Keynesianism; Semiotics and Structuralism; Schrödinger's cat; DNA; Deconstructivism; the mind-body problem; Superstrings; Quantum Theory; The Big Bang; black holes...and many more.

Five Get Gran Online

Bruno Vincent

How to Land a Plane

Mark Vanhoenacker

Authors:

Mark Vanhoenacker

THE DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE YEAR'Illuminates the practical reality of piloting in a concise and useful manner' Times Literary SupplementSo, hello! Welcome! Honestly, you look surprisingly relaxed. That's great to see. Have a seat on the left side of the cockpit - that's the captain's seat. Yes, that's right, you're now the captain, and yes, that's the runway down there. Fasten your seatbelt, order yourself a cup of tea, and let's get cracking.Mark Vanhoenacker, the airline pilot who makes poetry out of the science of flight technology, hands over the controls. Walking and talking us through the nitty-gritty of an approach and touchdown, he builds our understanding of flight from the ground up (or rather from the sky down), offering a new perspective of one of the more challenging and rewarding tasks ever.

How To Understand E =mc²

Christophe Galfard

Authors:

Christophe Galfard

Do something amazing and learn a new skill thanks to the Little Ways to Live a Big Life books! The beginning of the 20th century heralded a scientific revolution: what a few brilliant minds uncovered about our reality in the first twenty years has shaped the history of our species. And one of them in particular stands out: Einstein, with his celebrated E=mc2.In this remarkable and insightful book, Christophe Galfard describes how E=mc2 is a direct consequence of the Theory of Special Relativity, the theory of how objects move and behave, at speeds close to the speed of light. He considers Einstein's legacy in the light of the 21st century, with fresh hindsight, and considers its impact on our vision of reality. The reader will discover that far from being just a formula, it is a brand new understanding of the nature of space and time.Some of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in the history of science have been made by geniuses who managed to merge and unite hitherto separated domains of knowledge. Galfard explores two unifications with Einstein's theories, and looks at the even bigger picture of how E=mc2 has changed our world, and what it entails for the future.Throughout, Galfard takes the reader on an extremely entertaining journey, using simple, jargon-free language to help the reader gain a deeper understanding of science. With humour and patience, he guides us through the world of particles, anti-matter and much more to bring us closer to an ultimate understanding of reality as we understand it today.

At the Strangers' Gate

Adam Gopnik

Authors:

Adam Gopnik

'A dazzling talent' Malcolm GladwellWhen Adam Gopnik and his soon-to-be-wife, Martha, left the comforts of home in Montreal for New York, the city then, much like today, was a pilgrimage site for the young, the arty, and the ambitious. But it was also becoming a city of greed, where both life's consolations and its necessities were increasingly going to the highest bidder. At the Strangers' Gate builds a portrait of this particular moment in New York through the story of this couple's journey--from their excited arrival as aspiring artists to their eventual growth into a New York family. Gopnik transports us to his tiny basement room on the Upper East Side, and later to SoHo, where he captures a unicorn: an affordable New York loft. He takes us through his professional meanderings, from graduate student-cum-library-clerk to the corridors of Conde Nast and the galleries of MoMA. Between tender and humorous reminiscences, including affectionate portraits of Richard Avedon, Robert Hughes, and Jeff Koons, among many others, Gopnik discusses the ethics of ambition, the economy of creative capital, and the peculiar anthropology of art and aspiration in New York, then and now.

The Hourglass

Tracy Rees

The Guardian Angel

Elizabeth Gill

The Longest Night

Otto de Kat

Authors:

Otto de Kat

A masterpiece of literary craft and concision; sparse, beautiful and hugely affecting - Daily MailSince the liberation of the Netherlands, Emma Verweij has been living in Rotterdam, in a street which became a stronghold of friendships for its inhabitants during the Second World War. She marries Bruno, they have two sons, and she determines to block out the years she spent in Nazi Berlin during the war, with her first husband Carl. But now, ninety-six years old and on the eve of her death, long- forgotten memories crowd again into her consciousness, flashbacks of happier years, and the tragedy of the war, of Carl, of her father, and of the friends she has lost. In The Longest Night, his impressive, reflective new novel after News from Berlin, Otto de Kat deftly distils momentous events of 20th-century history into the lives of his characters. In Emma, the past and the present coincide in limpid fragments of rare, melancholy beauty.Translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson